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Content ---- ---- If anybody came up with a hard sci-fi MMO RPG I'd be... like... (I'm already watching Star Citizen) Was hoping that was WS but the beta pretty much disabused me of that notion, alas. Work had a water main break so the office is closed. Being a "knowledge worker" (cue epic eyerolling) I still have to work amd I can do it remotely *mutters* At least I don't have to adhere to the ridiculous dress code requirement here. (Hint to the CEO: When morale is crap, making people dress up unnecessarily doesn't help) Wildstar-wise the US WSRP community did a "what-if" event over the weekend. Imagine if the transmat bugged out and started mixing up primal patterns (X's conciousness in Y's body, etc.). Much hilarity ensued. I was going to do my own swaps but for reasons I wound up playing the straightman. My other accomplishment was to push out the beta of my new Addon Revisit. Other than a couple of regular Monday night RP events I don't have much else planned. May dink around on an alt or something. | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- That sucks, Zub. This is part of the reason why I haven't done anything for other players... sometimes can become a sticky situation. :P I might start looking for patrons if guild houses come out though. Or, if it's just linked plots, I'll probably make a Circle for architects to work together on a big community project. :D | |} ---- ---- i think it's a mix of creeps gonna creep, and yes, in some cases stuff like this will work. There are plenty of people out there, women and men, who are either completely unable to assess motivation, or just like the attention so much they won't question why it's coming... or who from. :unsure: I'll always remember this quote from one of my favourite sci-fi hybrids, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: "Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?" There's always The Fifth Element. That was an exceptionally colourful movie, while maintaining the grit feel in a few places! | |} ---- I don't know. I've seen this employed, but never seen it be successful. Anyway, you're talking about cyberpunk, I think, which was a period genre big during the 80s through about the early 2000s. It's less of a thing now, but if I could sum it up, it's that the world gets more futuristic, but nothing really changes. It really kicked off with Neuromancer and cyberpunk was the stylistic theme behind what I think is the greatest RPG book game of all time, Shadowrun. It's also still a big force in Japanese entertainment, particularly anime. Ghost in the Shell is probably the example best known to the west of a cyberpunk anime, Akira probably being the next. The idea that the future comes and just gives us loads more ways to be exactly the same animals we are now is sort of being subsumed by a sort of higher vision of a future that is a lot more clean and tidy, but morally vacant, has taken it over lately. It's a movement I always thought was best described in Blade Runner. One of my favorite movies of all time. You also see it in Wildstar in things like their flying cabs, Protostar, other signs that the future world has essentially given mankind access to all sorts of unheard-of conveniences... and nothing changed. The Eldan kind of represents that new-school we-sew-the-seeds-of-our-own-apocalyptic-destruction vibe modern futuristic visions tend to take, but a lot of the game is very cyberpunk. | |} ---- Love it too. It's a shame they cut out much of the book's soul though, from what I remember. :mellow: Depending how cynical you are about modern politics, sounds accurate. :lol: The cyberpunk world is usually defined by corporate control over land and law, including areas outside of earth's system, and the integration of human qualities with technology (AI, synthetics). One of the core themes I see in Gibson's work is escapism/empowerment through technology, frequently leading to questions of mortality that apply to both rich and poor. He also tends to emphasize the importance of the underground/black market as a means to resist the ascendance of the wealthy land owners, and to prevent the obfuscation of historical consciousness that comes with a growing middle class (those who are wealthy enough to be comfortable stop asking who owns the tools). I think Gibson was very concerned with the disappearance of traditional culture as people accept commerce in its place. Like Vic said, very much extrapolating from current society. Gibson travelled to Japan in the 80s and saw a corporate reality emerging that was visually stunning and culturally blinding. So he put that into a novel. Good times. :P | |} ---- Well, it could be, and it is referenced in Wildstar quite a bit. Especially if you're an Exile. Hell, Exile stuff can feel almost full-blown steampunk with all the western influences out there. All their structures appear dingy and slightly dilapidated, Thayd has litter and random screens hooked up to jury-rigged power couplings, it is very reminiscent of that cyberpunk ethos. Really, though, they just don't make enough use out of the futuristic apparatus of their sci-fi setting. I think they could go a lot further with it. | |} ---- When I first started building, I was in a very cyberpunk mode. My crime mall concept done around August was modeled after the Puyallup Barrens store in the Sega Genesis Shadowrun game. :D Anyway, I gave up on that theme when I decided there wasn't enough gritty, trashy small detail decor in the game. Then when I arrived in Thayd on one of my alts I was like...well damn, I probably should have rolled Exile. :P I feel like focusing more on sci-fi would give this game a clearer, more unique identity in the MMO market. And that would be great because right now SWTOR is the only real sci-fi competitor, and it's kind of old news, F2P butchered model, and doesn't offer the degree of housing immersion or (IMO) gameplay fun this game does. But I understand that fantasy also sells and is liked by a lot of players, so we won't likely see this game take a turn to hard sci-fi. :( | |} ---- I wouldn't mind more fantasy and sci-fi. Sometimes, I think we kind of get that "neither" category, like the game takes a turn and is nothing but western. Gallow barely feels like a futuristic or fantasy area... or quest zone. That was the saddest part of it, that it's one of my favorite questlines, but it's one of the least connected to the game's central theme. I hope our next quest zone is an asteroid belt or that we get a kind of cyberpunk city run by questionable people. | |} ---- The next zone (D5) is Star-Comm Basin (aka Levian Bay). We'll be dealing with the Ascendency (whooo! hooo!). I think D6 will be in the Halon Ring along with the Redmoon raid. Or maybe D7 *shrugs* At some point we need to finish the Entity arc. (( Please don't make the Strain a recurring theme. Please don't make the Strain a recurring theme. Please don't make the Strain a recurring theme. ... )) | |} ---- What's the matter John.... HUH?! TOO MUCH PURPLE FOR YA, HUH?! | |} ---- The creeping space crud is yet another tired respin on the zombie apocalypse. Arguably the Ascendency is a similar arc but at least it tries to be sci-fi instead of an overused fantasy trope. Maybe just a bit? | |} ----